CCPA seminar in Tripoli

In the first weekend of June, 56 coaches from all over Lebanon participated in a 3-day seminar in Tripoli organized by CCPA.
The seminar was part of the education for coaches in the CCPA Popular Club project. The aim of the Rockwool Foundation funded project is to establish Popular Clubs all over Lebanon as a means to make people meet around the football pitches. Normally, only very few children have the opportunity to participate in organized sports in Lebanon, but this new project builds upon principles of fairness, fun and is open to everyone. With these new Popular Clubs, CCPA is promoting the development of an active and tolerant civil society inspired by the Scandinavian sport-for-all culture with a  focus on mixed inclusion of children, regardless of gender, talent, social standing, religious and ethnic distinctions.

 

At the seminar in Tripoli, which took place at Hotel Quality Inn and at Tripoli Municipal Stadium, the coaches were representing 24 new Popular Clubs in the CCPA network which now consists of 81 Popular Clubs all over the country. Most of the coaches came from the Northern districts of Tripoli, Danniyeh, Miniyeh and Akkar, but there were also participants from Baalbek, Beirut and Palestinian camps. During the training seminar, the participants learned how to organize activities for children, establish Popular Clubs and not least got the chance to meet people from other parts of the country.

 

The contacts made during the seminar will hopefully spark cooperation between coaches and clubs from all over Lebanon, and during the summer they will be attending yet another training seminar and organizing meetings, matches and not least 5 Open Fun Football Schools for hundreds of children. The CCPA seminar was only the first step to bring children and adults from different backgrounds and regions Lebanon together on the football pitch and hopefully the CCPA activities will encourage children, coaches and parents to cross lines of division and meet regularly. At the seminar in Tripoli several coaches from the conflict-torn neighborhoods in Tripoli, Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh, agreed on organizing activities that could bring the children of the conflicting areas together.

 

Wassim, a coach from Bab al-Tebbaneh, says: “It is very hard to live in our area, also for the children. They don’t have much and they grow up with all these tensions and problems. I am sure that football can make life better for them.” Maybe the CCPA activities in the future can encourage the children to be volunteering coaches themselves, just like 18-year old Abbas. Five years ago he took part in one of the CCPA Open Fun Football School and after the seminar in Tripoli, he will now be able to organize a Football School himself.

 

Since the beginning of the Popular Club project, more than 250 coaches from 81 Popular Clubs have now been trained by CCPA.

 

/JJP

 

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